The World at Night

by Alan Furst

Book Overview

"First-rate research collaborates with first-rate imagination. . . . Superb."--The Boston Globe

Paris, 1940. The civilized, upper-class life of film producer Jean Casson is derailed by the German occupation of Paris, but Casson learns that with enough money, compromise, and connections, one need not deny oneself the pleasures of Parisian life. Somewhere inside Casson, though, is a stubborn romantic streak. When he's offered the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375758585
• ISBN13: 9780375758584
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Random House Group
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Terrific Read in Historical/Espionage Fiction

This was my first foray into the historical/espionage novels of Alan Furst, and I was very impressed with this little book. The writing is superb: Furst really captured for me the feeling of Paris at the start of the Second World War. I truly savored the way he created suspenseful atmospherics with an economy of words. I also greatly appreciated Furst's attention to historical detail, and the authenticity he lends his depiction of spy tradecraft. There are elements that test one's suspension of disbelief--the ability of the main character, Casson, to draw women to his bed rivals James Bond, and his escapes from disaster are almost unbelievable--but, to me, this mattered little. In fact, these just added to the fun. Furst's novel was a joy to read, and I can't wait to read more of his work.

Another atmospheric work from Furst

Alan Furst has staked out his own particular place in the fictional literature of Europe around the time of World War II. His characters, sometime Central Europeans, sometime Frenchmen, are those caught up in the maelstrom and turbulence of the war. We see ordinary people exposed to moral ambiguities, and decisions must be made which are life-changing. There is heroism and cowardice, love and fear, and all the other panoply of emotions involved when the usual way of life is overtaken by war and violence. The characters are exceptionally finely drawn, and the writing is such that you want to finish the book at one sitting to find out how it ends. Now that this one is done, I'll be starting its sequel, for I really care about the characters.

"The World At Night" by Alan Furst: A Complex Pleasure

Review: THE WORLD AT NIGHT by Alan FurstReading Alan Furst's novels about Europe circa 1937-42 is an experience like no other. Immediately the reader is drawn into a world that is, for an American, a revelation. Europe during that time was watching as Hitler marched, with steadily increasing strength, through Germany and then, one by one, through neighboring countries, shifting boundaries and political alignments throughout a Europe that was still exhausted and smarting from the ravages of WW1, the global flu epidemic that immediately followed the war, and the Great Depression. For centuries Europeans have endured through variations of this experience, and there is a sort of cultural memory and mindset that informs European behavior as they feel the ground shifting under them yet again. They are stoic, they are disheartened, they begin to adjust to whatever the new regime may be, and in this case, they sense that it is going to be a particularly ugly one.M. Casson is Furst's man for this season. He is a Parisian, a film producer with offices in Paris, a wide network of business friends and associates, a wife with whom he has "an understanding" - they live apart, each of them takes lovers as they wish, but they are friends - and a tendency to fall in love with each woman who crosses his path and attracts his attention, and he is indeed a man who loves women, whether or not they are pretty, shapely, sexy, whatever. Each woman he spends time with fascinates him in her own way, and he is attuned to their complexities and fascinated to learn who they are, and to share their world (and their beds). As The World At Night opens, it is May 10, 1940, and Hitler is making his way through Belgium, headed for France. How will the French react? With deft strokes, Furst conjures the French sensibility for us. The French will wait. They have declared war, but fighting the Germans never was worthwhile. They will live with the Germans, hating them as they watch their insensitive occupation of everything French, and specifically for Casson, Parisian. Casson's life has been deliciously Parisian; a relaxed approach to business, a love affair now and then, periods of ennui, parties with old friends and lovers. His life has been interchangeable with his art movies, filled with complex women and naive men, all done in shades of gray. Casson's life is about to change. Casson is approached by the Resistance to do a job for them - but wait, it turns out this is a fake, an entrapment; fortunately he has declined, and escapes a potentially nasty situation. He is approached by the real Resistance, and because of his circumstances, feels he is ready to make a commitment and indeed, he recognizes that he has little choice, so he agrees to do a job for them. Besides, it involves a journey to southern France, and may offer him the opportunity to search for Citrine, his lost love. Casson has reason to think she may have returned to Marseilles and this is his chance to avoid